A liquid filter, in particular for fuel, oil or water, in particular of an internal combustion engine and especially of a motor vehicle, may be arranged in a filter housing. The housing may have at least two parts and the filter element is positioned therein in such a way that it separates at least one inlet of the housing for the liquid to be filtered from an outlet of the housing for the filtered liquid. The filter element includes a filter medium and may include at least one terminal disk that is connected to the filter medium with a seal support for an outer radial annular seal that can be clamped in a clamping area between the two housing parts of the housing that can be separated from each other.
In a certain known liquid filters, a zigzag-folded filter medium is arranged between two terminal disks. One of the two terminal disks has at the outer radial rim a seal support that is provided with a groove open outwardly in radial direction for receiving an annular seal made of an elastomer. The annular seal is clamped between two housing parts of the filter housing and seals thus the areas between the filter housing and the filter system. For mounting, the annular seal must be inserted into the securing groove in radial direction from the exterior. For this purpose, the annular seal must be stretched somewhat.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to design a filter element and a liquid filter of the aforementioned kind in such a way that the annular seal can be mounted as easily as possible on the seal support. Moreover, the annular seal should be embodied with a minimal material expenditure.